NYC Top Comedy Choices for Sunday 1/25/15

…and at Queens LIC, The Creek kicks off a series of free screenings of banned movies with The Interview

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:

[TOP PICK] [FREE]1:00 pm: The debut of this new monthly film series devoted to movies your parents forebade you to see or were otherwise banned kicks off with James Franco & Seth Rogen starring in the 2014 comedy that could’ve triggered nuclear war with North Korea atThe Creekdownstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by Pete Bladel:Banned Films:The Interview

[TOP PICK] 7:00 pm ($5): Joe Pera (hilarious and genius deadpan stand-up; Comedy Central, Adult Swim; for a very special one-minute set at Carolines, please clickhere; for Joe’s latest Kaufman awards submissions, please clickhereandhere) debuts a one-man show—which I’ll be attending, and can hardly wait to see—described as “low-key jokes and calm stories, the performance will be like listening to Garrison Keillor but actually funny but not so funny that you don’t mind falling asleep in the middle; feel free to bring a blanket” at Brooklyn’sThe Annoyance Theatre(367 Bedford Avenue; take J/M/Z to Marcy Avenue or L to Lorimer Street):Joe Pera Talks You To Sleep

[$] 7:30 pm ($42 & 2-drink min.): A stand-up who starred in Comedy Central specialCan a Brother Get Some Love?, and has been a series regular onBreaking Badand Adult Swim’sSperm Whale, headlines one last night at theCarolinesComedy Club:Lavell Crawford

[FREE]4:00 pm: An unusually early walk-in open-mic stand-up show (put your name in the bucket at 3:45), providing 3 minutes or more per comic atThe Creekdownstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by James Ferrarella:Face-Plant Comedy Open Mic

9:30 pm ($3): Open-mic comedy, with 3-5 minutes per walk-in performer who signs up (first come, first serve) atThe PITdownstairs lounge, hosted by Will Neville:Amateur Night At The Gemini

[FREE]10:00 pm: An open-mic stand-up show (sign up is at 9:45 pm) providing 5 minutes for each comic whose name is pulled from the bucket atThe Creekupstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by Christi Chiello:Lance Bass Space Mic

From legendary NYC comedy site Brooklyn Vegan: Thank God for Hy Bender’s religiously updated show bible BestNewYorkComedy.com. He is literally the only person in NYC providing daily summaries of what’s happening comedy-wise. It must be exhausting keeping that monster of a website alive…It is your daily comedy itinerary and it scares me how on top of his shit this guy is.

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Please feel encouraged to reach out to tell me about comedy shows, hire me for book or screenplay work, or for any other reason by emailing me at hy@hyreviews.com.